To:
Democratic National Committee (DNC)

DNC: Encourage Clinton to step down so Sanders can defeat Trump

Petition Text

America needs Bernie Sanders on the ballot to defeat Donald Trump

We, the undersigned American and world citizens,

• urge Hillary Clinton to step down as candidate for U.S. President
• urge Bernie Sanders to take her place, and
• urge the DNC to encourage and facilitate this process, in order to prevent Donald Trump from being elected President of the United States in November.

Why is this important?

Donald Trump appears more and more likely to win the U.S. Presidential election in November if Clinton continues to be the Democratic nominee. A President Trump would threaten the future of our planet. He does not comprehend the dangers of climate change, nuclear war or economic injustice, and his rhetoric on race and religion is already stirring up civil unrest. Yet he continues to improve in the polls and is raising significant amounts of money from his solid base of grassroots supporters. He is a serious contender and we dismiss him and his supporters at our own peril.

Hillary Clinton, while obviously the more experienced and competent candidate, is not well-positioned to defeat Trump. The American people are not enthusiastic about Clinton and have given her record-high “untrustworthy” numbers in opinion polls. They worry that she is not being honest about her health. She continues to be the subject of various investigations and email leaks, which are at a minimum an embarrassment to her campaign, and which have the potential to lead to criminal charges. Clinton also continues to use bad judgment on the campaign trail, where she is alienating large numbers of the voters she desperately needs in order to win. Many decent Americans are so tired of establishment politicians that they are thinking about voting for Trump simply to show their level of anger and frustration. They seem quite willing to vote “against their own interests” if it means that they will also hurt those at the top. It is not clear whether these people are admitting their support for Trump to pollsters, which means that Trump could already be further ahead than the polls indicate. We need to remember what happened recently in the UK during the Brexit vote.

Our only hope for defeating Donald Trump in November is to bring back Bernie Sanders as the Democratic Party nominee. Sanders is seen by the public as an outsider and a fighter (qualities people admire in Donald Trump) but he is also seen as someone of unquestionable integrity. Sanders has extremely high favorabilities overall, and particularly among all the demographics where Hillary Clinton is weak: millennials, independents, and white working-class men. Sanders can beat Trump easily. He polled very strongly against Donald Trump in July, and since that time his popularity in the country has only increased, to the point where he is even more popular than Michelle Obama.

In order for Bernie Sanders to return to the campaign and defeat Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has to voluntarily drop out of the race. We urge her and beg her to do so, for the good of her country and the planet. Our very survival as a species could depend on this selfless and noble act from her. In addition, in order to defeat Trump convincingly, the Democratic Party would have to replace Clinton with their strongest candidate against Trump, Bernie Sanders. Bernie won 23 states and 13 million votes during the Democratic primary, and has proven that he has great appeal among Independents and that he can mobilize strong grassroots funding and draw huge crowds. We urge the DNC not to replace Clinton with another establishment candidate who also might lose to Trump. We urge the DNC to give the Democratic nomination to Bernie Sanders, and work with Sanders to pick a VP candidate (for example, Joe Biden) who would satisfy centrist and establishment elements within the party.

In November, America needs to reject Donald Trump soundly at the polls, so that there is no question of a rigged election. Americans need to be motivated to turn out to vote, and to vote for as many down-ballot Democrats and progressives as possible. America needs to step up and take an active leadership role on issues such as renewable energy and climate change, economic justice, healthcare, education, fair trade, diplomacy and immigration. With cooperation and support from Hillary Clinton and the DNC, we can place Bernie Sanders at the top of the Democratic ticket and achieve all these goals.

We can do this, and we MUST. Our future, our children and our grandchildren are depending on it.